by May Dawson
“All right?” I demanded. “That’s just all right? I pour my feelings out and it’s just all right—”
He grabbed me suddenly, his arms around my waist and his lips against my cheek, and I turned my head into his and kissed him deeply.
The two of us rolled in the grass, kissing each other over and over.
There was a faint sound in the brush. The two of us rolled apart, and Logan was already up on one knee, ready to throw himself at any threat.
Josh, as a man now, stepped into the clearing, zipping his jeans up.
Suddenly, I could feel how flushed my cheeks were, my lips beestung. I would have been embarrassed, but Josh seemed completely nonplussed.
“She took her to Rippedthroat.”
Every other feeling dropped away as my heart began to thunder. “Why would she do that?”
“We’ll just have to ask her,” Logan said grimly.
Chapter 35
Joan
When I opened the trunk, I expected Maddie to be pissed. She’d fought me so fiercely, even with her hands taped, that I’d been afraid to leave her in the backseat. She might throw herself at me while I was driving and cause me to jerk the wheel, leading to an accident.
But what I didn’t expect was her cold blue eyes staring up at me and the way she hissed, “I hate you. I hate you for bringing me back to him.”
She spoke the words so quickly, as soon as I opened the hatch, that it seemed like she’d been waiting for the chance to say those words. Like they’d burned on her tongue this whole time.
“You won’t in a few minutes,” I promised her. “Once Rippedthroat lifts the magic.”
“It won’t matter,” she told me. “I wanted a mom. I wanted you. But that doesn’t matter now.”
Her words twisted inside my heart. I never thought that when I had my girl back, she’d be cruel.
This was why coming back to Rippedthroat was my only choice.
I swallowed the lump in my throat as I picked her up out of the trunk. She wriggled, fighting me, until I hissed that I was about to drop her.
It was the closest we’d been, except for when I’d fought her to capture her.
She smelled like earth and ocean salt and fresh sweat. Her hair smelled like strawberries. The scent made memories bloom faster than I could process them. The little girl I’d wrapped in a towel fresh out of her bath. Her cheeks smeared red with wild strawberries as she looked up at me, self-satisfied, surrounded by green leaves and thorns that didn’t seem to touch her. The bright blond of her hair as she ran ahead of me through the forest.
Traitorous tears rose in my eyes.
“You’ve made a good choice,” Rippedthroat promised from behind me. “You’ll see. You two can be together.”
Maddie stiffened when she saw him. Her heart began to beat faster, frantic. But she went very still, and her arms still didn’t go around my neck.
She was terrified of him.
I’d made a terrible mistake.
Still, we were here now and I’d have to be smart to get us back out alive. “She doesn’t remember me. You have to lift the magic.”
He hesitated. He didn’t want to lift whatever magic bound her, but then he conceded, giving us both a condescending smile. “All right. Bring her inside. I’ll release the magic.”
And so I carried my daughter into the monster’s den.
Chapter 36
Arthur
When I first stepped through the door, I didn’t see any witches. Callum had doused all the magic, the fire and their ability to spark magic. Had they realized that and run?
The barn was dark. In the center, the bodies of the children were piled up, side-by-side, so close their shoulders touched. My heart stopped. Were all the children in both packs dead, and this was just a sham? Maybe there was no one here to guard them at all.
Then a witch stepped out of the shadows, chanting. When he raised his arms and tried to throw a blast of magic my way, nothing happened.
“Your magic fizzled out,” Callum said lightly. “Shame.”
Then he slammed into the witch, knocking him to the ground.
Tuck bounded in behind us, transformed into a wolf, and snarled as he threw himself into the one of the witches.
Realizing their magic wasn’t working, the other three witches in the room drew weapons. There was one on the hay loft hanging over the barn floor, and he put a rifle into his shoulder, trying to draw a bead on us as his two friends headed toward us. Both of them had guns.
As the witch nearest Callum started to pull the trigger of his handgun, I hurled my knife at him. The knife buried itself hilt-deep in the witch’s throat. He looked at me in shock as blood began to spill out of his mouth.
“Could’ve told me you had a knife,” Callum said as he threw himself toward me. I wasn’t sure what he saw, but I ducked, letting him land on my back and roll off the other side. His momentum carried him toward the second witch, the one on my right.
“You didn’t ask.” I sprinted for the ladder to the stairs. “Maybe you shouldn’t always assume you know all the answers.”
He still didn’t know what had happened after his pack was attacked by the coven, when he called us for help from a payphone. I’d never forget his voice, choked and broken as he struggled not to cry.
But if he didn’t want answers, I wasn’t forcing them on him.
The witch at the top of the stairs fired off a reckless, useless shot at Callum, then brought the gun around to bear on me.
Callum slammed into the witch and knocked him to the ground. Even as he wrestled to get on top of the witch and hold him down, he was incanting.
I charged up the ladder. It was unlikely I’d make it to the top before he managed to fire, but it was our only chance. Otherwise, he’d be safe and he’d pick us off one-by-one.
From the corner of my vision, I saw Callum fling his hand out, dropping his knee in the witch’s throat beneath him. He muttered something and a blast of magic knocked the witch in the hayloft over. The gun fired into the ceiling.
He must’ve broken the same spell he’d just used to keep the witches from using magic, and used his magic to prevent the witch from shooting me down.
I bounded across the loft floor and dropped on top of the witch. He tried to fight me, but I locked my arms around his jaw, ready to snap his neck.
“You’ve got that one?” I called down to Callum. “We might need intel.”
Callum was still breathing hard as he nodded.
There was a glint of silver in the witch’s hand. He’d managed to reach a knife, and he tried to drive it into my side.
I snapped his neck and felt the pop of his vertebrae in my hands. Then I let him drop.
When I slid back down the ladder, Tuck had turned back into a man. He was deathly silent as he leaned over the children, and then he looked up, his eyes alight. “They’re still just sleeping.”
I clapped Callum on the shoulder. “You and I make a pretty good team, as it turns out.”
He glanced at me, but I couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
“For Piper,” he said.
For Piper, sure. But I would have done anything to protect his pack, just like I would’ve done anything to protect mine.
I would’ve told him that, but he never asked.
Chapter 37
Piper
“For the three of us to make this work, we’re going to have to be smart,” Logan said.
“The three of you?” The voice from behind us made me spin, my heart rocketing in my chest.
Caroline stood there with her dark hair pulled back in a low knot. Despite her teasing words, her eyes were wide. Her face and her words didn’t match.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“I can’t believe my luck,” she muttered. “I didn’t know you guys were here. I was just walking back toward home…”
“I’m glad to see you too,” I began.
She shook her head. “I’m not glad to see you, Pip
er.”
“Why?”
Her lips parted, and then she winced, pressing her hand to her throat. Panic crossed her face, as if she was drowning in dry air.
Logan was at her side in a second. “Did they put a spell on you?”
Tears came to her eyes as if she was struggling against some kind of invisible force.
“Wait,” I jumped forward. “Stop asking her questions. Maybe it makes it worse. You don’t have to tell us anything, Caroline.”
She stared at me for another desperate, terrified second and then suddenly drew a ragged breath in.
Logan cursed. “He’s been busy, I guess.”
“Maybe we can use this. My father probably wanted Caroline to be part of his trap.” Turning to Caroline, I asked, “Is there something you’re going to tell us?”
“I’ve been looking for you to help you defeat Rippedthroat.” She said it easily, with a spark in her eyes, and I would’ve believed her. The thought made my heart freeze in my chest.
“What can we do?” I asked calmly.
“He’s been keeping the house locked up tight, but I can smuggle you in through the kitchen.” She winked. “There are some perks to being forever on laundry and kitchen duty, it turns out.”
“Tell me more,” I said, trading a look with Logan and Josh.
Logan’s head lifted suddenly, his nostrils flaring. “Stay here and protect the girls,” he commanded Josh. “I’ll be right back.”
Josh rolled his eyes. “Of course.”
Logan turned and ran into the forest, bounding over fallen trees and ducking beneath low-slung branches as he moved at top speed.
I reached out and squeezed Josh’s hand. The guys weren’t exactly coming together seamlessly, but they were coming together. It wasn’t that long ago that they’d been literally at each other’s throats, fighting and snarling and ready to kill each other. I’d take any progress.
“He’s a jerk, but he has his moments,” I told Josh.
“Yeah, every pack has one.”
“The Atlantic pack has more than one,” I warned him, which made Josh grin in response.
“Where did he go?” Caroline asked.
“Who knows?” Josh said easily, smoothly. “Listen, you just stay here with us for a few minutes and then you can go back to the house and pretend to Rippedthroat that you never saw us, all right?”
It was a promise none of us expected her to keep.
Chapter 38
Logan
I ran through the woods at top speed, dodging trees and bounding over fallen logs. I might be a blur through the woods, but if I was sighted by the Shenandoah pack—or maybe even wolves from my own pack—I’d put Piper and Josh in danger.
But I had caught Seb’s scent. And if I knew he was nearby the house, then one of the other wolves could catch him too.
Seb. He was alive. The thought made my heart pound.
When I hurtled out of the woods, he threw up his arm like I was going to attack him. Then he grinned as he realized who I was. I grabbed him in a hug, and he threw his arms around me belatedly. Like he hadn’t expected it.
“Seb,” I said. “What the hell are you doing here?”
As the two of us separated, he gave me an abashed look. “I’m trying to find Maddie. Finn had her and he lost her to Joan—”
“You know where Finn is? He’s alive? We thought…” I didn’t want to say what I’d thought.
Seb nodded like he understood. “Yeah. I thought he was dead too. He’s hurt really bad.”
His eyes were shadowed, and I tried to think of something comforting to say. “He just needs Piper.”
“She shouldn’t be here,” he whispered. “Rippedthroat—”
“…is setting a trap.” I finished his sentence. “We figured that out. Caroline is under some kind of spell.”
There was a howling in the woods, too near us. It was the sound of a wolf who had caught a scent.
“You shouldn’t have come here,” I told him. “I was able to follow you.”
“How come I didn’t know you were coming?”
“Spell,” I said shortly.
“You’ve got to go,” he said. “Get back to Finn and Nick, they’re holed up in the wreckage of my old house.”
“We’ve got to go.” I wasn’t leaving him.
“If I go with you, they’ll track my scent,” he said. “Do you know the spell?”
My jaw set. Maybe I should get over my distaste for magic. “I don’t. But Josh might—”
“It’ll be too late,” he said. “That was close.”
“I’m not losing you again,” I said.
“I’ll stay here. You stay free and rescue me,” he said calmly. My little brother seemed more like a man than I’d ever thought he was. “Maybe they’ll think I have some value to Arthur.”
“You do,” I said, “so it won’t be a hard sell.”
He hesitated, and I said, “Don’t be stupid.”
I wanted to say a lot to my brothers, to be a better brother to both of them, but for some damn reason, don’t be stupid was what came out of my mouth.
“Don’t you be stupid,” he said. “Get out of here. Take care of Piper.”
Apparently, that was how we were leaving things right before we went into a desperate battle: don’t be stupid.
“We’ll come get you,” I promised.
“I know,” he said.
I clapped his shoulder with my hand, giving him a nod, and he nodded back.
The hardest thing I ever did in my life was turn my back on my brother and leave him behind.
Chapter 39
Maddie
Dad crouched in front of me. “Hey, Mads. How are you?”
When I didn’t answer, he looked up at Joan. “Really? You had to tape a little girl’s hands together?”
“Like you haven’t done worse to her,” she said.
The two of them looked like they wanted to kill each other.
Dad drew a knife out of a sheath on his hip. I held very still, but my hands started to shake and I couldn’t make them stop. I was trembling like I was cold. I couldn’t make it stop.
That made Dad so mad sometimes. But this time, he gave me a steady, comforting look and wrapped his hand around mine. Relief, like warmth, flooded my chest. Today wasn’t one of his mad days.
He slipped the tip of the knife under the duct tape and began to saw back and forth. The look on his face was focused. Cold metal burned against my skin. I looked down in a hurry because it felt like the sharp side of the blade was against my skin. But it was just my imagination. The duct tape pulled at my skin as the blade cut all the way through. Dad stuffed it back in his sheath.
“Really, Joan,” he said, straightening, “I think we can handle one little girl between the two of us.”
“Yeah?” she asked. “It doesn’t seem like you can handle the other one, no matter how much help you hire on.”
The other one. Piper. From the dour look that crossed his face at Joan’s words, Dad didn’t have Piper. I felt alone without my sister. But she would come for me, I knew she would.
Dad must have read my face. “Don’t worry, sweetie. We’ll be all together soon enough.”
His words sounded sweet, his tone gentle, but something still made my stomach tighten.
“Now, Maddie,” he said, resting his hands on my shoulders. “When you came to me, the people I work with put a spell on you. They changed some of your memories, and Piper’s memories too, so that you two would be sisters. I just wanted us all to be a family. But I think it’s time now to let the spell go. Are you ready?”
Behind him, Joan crossed her arms impatiently, and her lips open and closed as if she wanted to say something but chose not to.
“Is it going to hurt?” I asked.
“Maybe a little,” he said, gripping my elbow gently as he turned toward Joan. “But that woman is actually your mom. And she really wants you to be brave and let go of those memories that aren’t real.”
Joan smiled tightly at his words.
“I don’t care who she is,” I said. “She hurt Finn. Don’t leave me with her, Dad.”
He turned his back on her to rub my arms. “Oh, sweetheart. It’s going to be okay. You’ll see.”
He sounded sympathetic, but there was a sparkle in his cool blue eyes.
“Can we get on with it?” Joan asked.
“Fine, fine.”
Dad rested his hands on my head, his fingertips resting lightly on my scalp and his thumbs on my cheekbones. I didn’t like his hands on my face. I tried to pull away, and his fingers tightened. His nails bit into my scalp. My lips parted in a silent cry, but I held very still.
Fighting Dad never worked.
He began to mutter the words of a spell.
Suddenly, my head hurt. It felt like his hands were crushing my head in. I made a low desperate sound that turned into a wail. I couldn’t hold it back in my chest.
Joan was by my side in a second, hovering.
Then pain built until I wanted to die, and then it was gone.
Suddenly, my head felt so light that I was dizzy. The world seemed to glow. Dad’s face and Joan’s were glowing too, and they looked beautiful through the white haze. They looked worried as they looked at me.
And then the colors faded to normal, fast as a flash, and I drew a long, strangled breath.
“How do you feel?” Dad asked.
Joan stared at me with tears shimmering in her eyes. I didn’t know why she was crying.
Suddenly, I remembered her. I’d been so tall when she carried me on her shoulders. Once, I’d sat up on her shoulders to watch fireworks exploding in the night sky. It was like stars popping in the sky, before they cascaded in red and blue and silver trails. It was magical, but I’d pressed my hands over my ears because it was so loud.
The memory of the noise reminded me of a day my mother and I were walking down the sidewalk when a convoy of police cars and ambulances streaked by with their sirens wailing. As I started to cry, she’d knelt in front of me and clapped her hands over my ears to block out the sound, although she winced at the noise herself.